The Dangers of Contactless or Wireless Credit Cards

Do you know that your contactless or wireless credit card information can be stolen without the thief laying a hand on your wallet, swiping your card, or tricking you into disclosing your card information? Yes it is possible because of the RFID technology that is now being used and embedded in credit and debit cards, to contactlessly or wirelessly read information from them. With a RFID reader that you can purchase online for a few dollars and a small laptop computer, tablet or a Smartphone, you can get close to people without touching them and read the information from their credit cards, if their cards are using the RFID technology.

Advertisements

What is RFID?

RFID stands for Radio-frequency identification, and is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. The technology is being used in debit and credit cards to make it easy to pay and go, but criminals can steal your credit card information and use it to make purchases online without your knowledge.

How to Protect Yourself against RFID Technology Hacking or Skimming

If you want to know if you are at risk of Electronic Pickpocket Hacking or Skimming, please check your cards for the following RFID symbol:

The RFID symbol or icon indicates that your card has the RFID technology embedded in it.

There are products like RFID Blocking wallets, sleeves and cases that you can place your cards in, that will prevent RFID readers from reading the information from them, by blocking the RFID radio frequency or waves.

You may use one of the major search engines to find these products and purchase them. Just search for "RFID Blocking Wallet".

RFID technology hacking or skimming is a cause for concern and it is important that you talk to your bank or credit card provider about it, if you have the technology embedded in your cards.

RFID chips are also embedded in Passports and Driver's licenses.

Please share what you know or ask a question about this article by leaving a comment below. Also, check the comment section below for additional information, if there is any.

Remember to forward suspicious, malicious, or phishing email messages to us at the following email address: info@onlinethreatalerts.com

Comments, Questions and Reviews

(Total: 1)

To help protect your privacy, please do not post or remove, your full name, telephone number, email address, username, password, account number, credit card information, home address or other sensitive information in or from your comments, questions, or reviews. And, when you post a comment or review, we will use your IP address to display your approximate location to other users.

The comments or reviews below do not necessarily reflect the views of Online Threat Alerts.

Posted: Jan 26, 2018 at 5:44 AM by an anonymous user from or near: Northampton, England, United Kingdom

When I watch people using these cards very few actually check the amount being charged and just wave the card/phone over the PDQ. What is also interesting is that in 90% of the cases I have witnessed they don't even pick up the receipt.

I know someone who had their card stolen and it was used for sums under the limit 4 times in a very short time. The banks state that they will reimburse you but it is not the banks reimbursing you..its other customers of the bank who get lousy interest rates.

We found documentation in one rental house where every month they made claims that money had been claimed fraudulently from their credit card and they had been reimbursed small amounts and they did this every month .